Perić: To quote Mamić, it's better for a judge to go with a Rolex than a good lawyer!

By: Branko Perić/Buka.ba

Azra Miletić, former judge of the Appellate Division of the Court of BiH (retired at the end of last year), sued Bosnia and Herzegovina for compensation of material and non-material damages in the amount of approximately 200,000 KM, which she suffered due to unlawful arrest and detention, suspension, and criminal proceedings that lasted seven years and ended with an acquittal.

During those seven years, Azra Miletić received her full judicial salary from the state. However, Azra claims that her reputation and honor were damaged by the deprivation of liberty, suspension, and criminal proceedings, that she suffered mental anguish and pain, and that she suffered material damage in the form of lost profits she would have earned as a judge in the commission for taking the bar exam and as an educator of judges and prosecutors.

Judge Azra Miletić was deprived of her liberty in early 2015 in her courtroom on suspicion of accepting a bribe from the convicted Ramo Brkić, former police commissioner in Bihać, in order to favor him in the appellate proceedings by acquitting him or reducing his sentence.

There is nothing controversial regarding Judge Azra Miletić's right to compensation. This commentary will not discuss the claims made in the lawsuit. Her guilt or innocence will not be discussed either. The courts had different opinions on this matter, but the final outcome was an acquittal. The case is legally interesting due to procedural specificities and confusing legal interpretations. Rarely does a court case provide such a clear picture of the perverted functioning of the judicial system, regardless of the perspective from which it is viewed.

In mid-2015, Azra Miletić, Ramo Brkić, and Senad Šabić were charged, among other things, with the criminal offenses of giving and accepting bribes. The indictment was confirmed on June 22, 2015. Shortly after the main trial began, the accused Ramo Brkić and Senad Šabić fled. The Court of BiH, which was conducting the criminal proceedings at the time, ordered their detention and issued international arrest warrants. The proceedings against them were separated and continued only against Judge Miletić. After less than two years of trial, the Court of BiH sentenced Judge Miletić to two and a half years in prison for accepting a bribe.

In the appellate proceedings, the Appellate Division of the Court of BiH accepted the appeal of the convicted Azra Miletić and transferred the further conduct of the criminal proceedings to the Municipal Court in Sarajevo. The transfer of proceedings from a special court of the highest rank to a court of the lowest rank is assigned to the Court of BiH by law. True, it represents a kind of absurdity because it is not generally applicable and disregards some very important legal principles.

In this specific case, the Appellate Division emphasizes the principle of an impartial court, considering the fact that Azra Miletić is a judge in the same division. (Such practice raises the question of who would be competent to judge the judges of the Supreme Courts of the entities, whose procedural laws do not provide for the possibility of transferring the proceedings in an identical case!).

The proceedings before the Municipal Court in Sarajevo lasted until April 12, 2021, when Judge Miletić was acquitted of the charges. From the explanation of the verdict, it is concluded that the evidence on the basis of which the indictment was filed was declared illegal because it was obtained in violation of the criminal procedure law.

The first question that causes confusion is why the proceedings to prove Judge Azra Miletić's guilt lasted seven years? What was so complicated in a judge's case that it took seven years to prove? Is that a reasonable trial period? Is the case of one judge a measure of the efficiency of the judicial system? If one judge is tried for seven years, how many years should trials against organized criminal groups that have committed multiple serious criminal offenses take?

The inefficient work of the Municipal Court in Sarajevo in the case of Azra Miletić cost the state of BiH more than half a million KM. But Azra Miletić is not the only such case. At the same time, criminal proceedings against the suspended chief prosecutor of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, Goran Salihović, and prosecutor Bože Mihajlović, which were transferred from the Court of BiH in the same way, have been ongoing before the same Municipal Court in Sarajevo for seven or more years. No one knows how much longer it will take for them to be finally concluded. Both Salihović and Mihajlović have been receiving their full salaries for all seven or more years of the trial. The court's inefficiency in their trials so far has cost the state of BiH over a million KM.

Currently, five judges and prosecutors from the state judiciary are suspended! Almost a small court is out of function! In addition to Goran Salihović and Bože Mihajlović, judges Dalida Burzić and Ranko Debevec, and prosecutor Dijana Kajmaković are suspended. Investigations against Dijana Kajmaković and Dalida Burzić have been ongoing for about two years, and no one knows their status or why they have not been concluded.

This brief history of the (dis)functionality and rule of law and justice explains the complete collapse of the judicial system. If these are the results of the reform, then bankruptcy should be declared and a new model of justice distribution should be considered. Such a judiciary is a professional, institutional, and state disgrace! It is currently a system from which the state suffers enormous damage. Instead of being a paradigm of an efficient and professional system, the judiciary has become a playground for unimaginable abuses, violations of the law, and irresponsibility.

It is not even a question of whether Salihović, Mihajlović, Burzić, and Kajmaković will be indicted, convicted, or acquitted (the latter is more likely!), the problem is why the proceedings against judges and prosecutors take so long, and no one sees it as a problem, not even the judges and prosecutors against whom the proceedings are being conducted. An incomprehensible attitude of the independent regulator towards the system for whose functionality it is responsible!

But let's return to the case of Azra Miletić. It would not be interesting today, like many similar cases that have fallen into oblivion due to their long duration, if other difficult-to-understand things had not happened in it. Namely, the fugitive Ramo Brkić was apprehended in Sweden on our court's warrant and extradited to BiH. The proceedings against him are also being conducted by the Municipal Court in Sarajevo, but the trial is taking place before a different judge. Upon completion of the evidentiary proceedings, on March 9, 2020, by verdict no. 65 0 K 776874 19 K, the accused Ramo Brkić was convicted of giving a bribe to Judge Azra Miletić. The factual description of his actions, as well as the explanation of the verdict, clearly states when, how, and in what manner Judge Azra Miletić accepted the bribe. A year later, on April 12, 2021, the same court, by verdict no. 65 0 K 704016 18 K, acquitted Azra Miletić of the charge of accepting a bribe. Both verdicts are final.

After the final conclusion of both cases, which stem from a single act, we have paradoxical outcomes: the accused Ramo Brkić was convicted of giving a bribe, and Judge Azra Miletić was acquitted of accepting the same bribe! Ramo Brkić will serve a prison sentence of four years and 11 months for giving a bribe that Judge Azra Miletić did not receive! The same court determines that there is evidence and that there is no evidence!

Of course, this is not a legal paradox or an apory of the legal mind. It is a contradiction that common sense cannot accept, and which could have arisen either from a different assessment of evidence, incorrect interpretation of law and misunderstanding of justice, or from criminal activity of judicial structures. Similar legal and judicial idiocies (explanation of orders, opening of cases!) have recently become the most serious threat to the rule of law and social justice. Cases are piling up in which obvious culprits are acquitted, and innocent people are accused and convicted. No one can be sure anymore that they will not be unjustly convicted. And everyone will believe that they can escape punishment if they have the ruling political circles and corrupt judges behind them. It is better for a judge to go with a “Rolex” than with a good lawyer, as the inimitable Zdravko Mamić would say.

I have been publicly speaking for a long time about the judicial-political and media mafia that is destroying the judicial system. In response to my public warnings, that same mafia brought me before a disciplinary court a few months before my retirement and filed a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor's Office of BiH for a dissenting opinion in the case of "Novalić et al.". And then, a comedic twist of fate directed the key evidence of my suspicions – the arrest of the president of the Court of BiH for destroying official files and various abuses. This was followed by the suspension of the president of the Commercial Court in Banja Luka. And here we are at the question of all questions: if court presidents destroy evidence and break laws, what do their judges do? Can it be believed that judges in courts apply laws and administer justice? Why do prosecutors accuse the innocent and absolve the guilty? Who are the people in the HJPC who select and appoint unworthy and corrupt prosecutors and judges?

The circle of questions and the field of doubt are widening, and there are no answers. Instead of expert analyses and public discussions, projects on integrity, which is being systematically destroyed, are arriving from Brussels. Where is the end of the downfall?